Only a couple hundred feet of visibility down here at Cape May...good thing you got past when you did.

We came across the Pamlico Tuesday and the Albemarle Wednesday. Tuesday was rain and fog with less 100 yards vis. Wednesday a fog bank rolled across the Albemarle and I couldn’t see 100 feet. It was my first experience with low visibility and radar. Thank god for radar, with all the sailboat heading south and me heading north. It’s a little spooky knowing that another boat is about 100 yards away and I can’t see them.
Hanging out in Norfolk today for weather. Will probably run to Deltaville Sat or Sun, then on to Solomons. Sure is getting cold here.

Or hang at the dock where the dredge company crewboat ties up. That guy is usually bored out of his mind. 12 hour shift, on immediate recall and on many days, only does the dredge's end of shift crew change.

Ask me mow I know what the crewboat Cappy does.......ask one that actually works for the dredge company how the whole operation works...

We came across the Pamlico Tuesday and the Albemarle Wednesday. Tuesday was rain and fog with less 100 yards vis. Wednesday a fog bank rolled across the Albemarle and I couldnít see 100 feet. It was my first experience with low visibility and radar. Thank god for radar, with all the sailboat heading south and me heading north. Itís a little spooky knowing that another boat is about 100 yards away and I canít see them.
Hanging out in Norfolk today for weather. Will probably run to Deltaville Sat or Sun, then on to Solomons. Sure is getting cold here.

What kind of radar and how new? Traditional, HD, or 3G/4G radar? Just curious. I have one made by Thomas Edison, I think, because it is quite old.

Daddyo, I've been following you on Marine Traffic. You are steady and very good at the helm. Congrats on missing the dredge operation. I have had a few of those myself and one on a no moon night with only one smudge pot lit as a warning light.

Thanks for the heads up. I wish I had read that earlier. My son had the helm (not paying attention) and I had just come up from my rest and I look up and a hundred feet in front of us is the dredge and three tugs!!! I grabbed the wheel and went hard to starboard. I then saw the pipes were on that side reaching out thousands of feet. Full about and came around leaving the whole mess to starboard. Five seconds was the difference. All this at 2:00am no moon light!

Wow, that's a close call. I didn't get your location at the time, were you on the outside?

Thanks for the compliments. I'm a distance runner and I suppose I approach passage making in the same manner. This trip is very different as my daughter-in-law gets sea sick more easily and she wants to see everything. She is Romanian and it's all new to her!

To close the loop on the Delaware Bay "dredge," I talked to the cap and owner of the supply ship this morning. The reason it appears so large is because "it" is actually 3 large dredges working in tandem. They told me that with intermediate pumps installed they can have as much as 15 MILES of pipe in the water. Must have been pretty horrible seeing that looming ahead of you at 3 a.m.

Darn, you disappeared going out off the Eastern bay. How am I supposed to stalk you on AIS. We left Norfolk at 0715 and hit Deltaville at 1400. The first four hours sucked. North winds on the nose. The 2-3 predicted chop was 3-5. Gotta love those Chesapeake short choppy waves. Weather is looking good for tomorrow. Fifty miles to Solomons and we finish up the season with over 1000 Kmiles in the last two months.
I am keeping my eyes peeled for you Daddyo. I KNOW YOUR OUT THERE.

i understand from exp.years ago that you have to put differnt valves in the head because the the stock ones dont hold up.they had them in the early Presients yrs ago 175 hp and they had to change the heads. idelivered a lot of them and we had problems i worked for Staten Island boat sales back then and they sold a lot of them.

We just went south through the swamp two weeks ago. The only significant vegetationwas at the southern end of each lock. I enjoy the Dismal but this run, not somuch. We hit the 0830 Deep Creek lock opening with about 15 boats. They madetwo lock throughs and then opened the bridge. It ate up a lot of time. Then thegrinding of teeth began. Someone up in the front of the big conga line decidedto run at 3.5 -3.8 kts. I called out on the radio that IF we didn’t pick it upto 5 kts we would all be in the swamp for the night. They picked it up for 20minutes and then right back to slow slow. When we hit the visitor’s center avery wide catamaran was tied up. I think he was the culprit. There was no wayto pass him in the canal because of his beam. It was already 1530 so we didn’tget the opportunity to make the South Bridge opening and sit on the wall forthe night. Instead we tied up to the bridge fender wall.

The next morning we were first in line, but..... the stb engine failed tostart. I quickly vented the Cummins and got it started. Then I discovered asteady leak on the stop solenoid. We tied up to the south wall and allowedothers to pass. I went into NASCAR pit crew mode and had the solenoid changedin 20 minutes (I had just changed the port this spring). Luckily there were somany boats that we lock operator did two openings. I like the swamp. But, itwas pretty frustrating not being able to make it through in one day.